DescentBB

Current rendition of my mesh. Currently at 2308 polys, triangulated.

That looks really awesome. I really like the angle on those intake fans!

It's very intresting, but its good!

Sniper wrote:That looks really awesome. I really like the angle on those intake fans!

Im completely opposite. It looks inefficient and impractical.

You know.... I can't do a single thing professionally.... it always has that *WOOPS* look about it. See... typo in pic above

The engines are designed like that on purpose. The original intakes were a weird oval shape that looked a little like turbines, but we know that turbines aren't oval, being that a fan won't exactly spin very well in an oval. So, I tilted them up to make attaching them a little easier. I suppose I could make them strait if people want them that way. I just thought they looked better and more interesting if they were tilted back. Turbines on a ship like this aren't even necessary as most of the planets don't have oxygen and some may even cause it to pull in warm air which would be bad. The turbine isn't necessary on a an antigravity ship. Just a helper.

I wanted to add something that would give the ship a little life anyway.

My next move is to detail out the bottom and see where that goes.

Update:


As by request of Top Wop, I added scoops and detail to the bottom. Model is currently at 2650 polys. I'm going to reduce the polycount on the engines, a bit more on the body, and on the tail fins.

Some renders to show off the model a little bit better. Currently at 2430 triangles:

Looking much better Messenjah!

Triangles: 2582

Reshaped the engines, tail fins (thanks Top Wop), turbines, added detail to the back, shortened the engine exhaust cones and added side vents.

WOW! Even better!

That rocks!

Ok.... I had to do it. I'm sorry. I had to do it. Probably my most bold and controversial move for the Pyro GL:




Hope this doesn't look too much like the GX. Somehow I REALLY love the look of this though. Top Wop and I were discussing what made the GX such a cool ship in the first place. The cockpit is what gave it, it's rugged look. Somehow the GL looked too compact. The cockpit seems to fit the bill for me somehow. If others think it makes it look too much like the GL. I can pull it.
I also plan on re-making the cockpit model when I'm done with the ship. I've already started on the new HUD images.

Looks cool to me! I think one of the main things that made the GX cool was the back wings. If you notice the back wings on the GL are small and they don't even bend at all.

I'd like to take this moment to (again) reiterate that the fins on the side of the pyro were originally the intakes for the engines. That's why aren't any on the sides of the GL. Nice ship. I likes the idea of the intakes being slanted up.

NM I needed to read both comments before I asked a dumb question.

Try turning smoothing off - gives you a more realistic idea of what it looks like since the game doesn't have it anyway.

The game.... sort-of smooths it I guess. The lighting gives it a smooth effect.


The reason I turned smoothing on is because people complained about the non-smoothed version.

you should even consider to replace radiuses with chamfers to reduce poly count, should this become a playable model.
otherwise, well done so far

Radius'? You mean IE: in a cylinder, you have a central vertex that connects a group of triangles? I just deleted the faces and replaced them with squares and that reduced it a bit.

Solid view, as requested.



Been straightening edges and I'm working now on the high-poly version that I will use for creating the textures.

nice!

This is like watching someone sculpt a model. Less common approach for this kinda stuff, which makes it even more awesome.

WOW!

How about widening the parts of the fuselage bearing the sideway oriented intakes and moving the intakes to the front, simultaneously removing the intakes behind the cockpit?

Interesting idea. I'll toy with that tommorow when I get some time. I haven't been able to touch it much this past week. I ended up having a rough week at work.

I like your model alot. Its interesting to see how little changes can make a big difference.

I think I prefer the solid view look more. It's looks stealth-ier to me. HOT!

I think I prefer the solid view look more. It's looks stealth-ier to me. HOT!

Must be if you post that twice

So how soon are you going to release the model?

When it's done!

I just spent the weekend testing different texture ideas and laying out UVW coordinates.

[]V[]essenjah wrote:When it's done!

You DO work on the Duke Nukem for Ever team!!!!!! I KNEW IT!!!

When that thing gets a paint job, it just screams \"give me teeth\" so it would look like the mega missile. XD

Sorry I have been away from this project for about a week now. I've been researching new ways to texture it. I have been experimenting a lot with texture baking. I tried making an ambient occlusion of the model but found that I was unhappy with the end results. Ambient occlusion (at least in Blender) doesn't save information pertaining to the specular map. Thus, I have to manually apply the dodge tool to highlight it enough to give it the illusion of specularity. I found that my hand painted textures for testing looked better in the end because I shadowed and highlighted everything by hand and I could add the shadow exactly where I wanted it. I'll probably use a combination of techniques in the end.

could you send the model to someone else with a higher end software package to render it for you? Anymore, you shouldn't have to bake your textures.

Yes, but this ship is intended for in-game use. D3 still requires you to bake your textures unfortunately since we don't have the source code to fix that issue. D3 doesn't use materials, self shadows, or any decent form of specular lighting for models. Everything is sadly baked in. Actually, the GL looked the best out of all the models I've baked so far. If nothing else, I do have a guy that can bake it for me.

So, bumps, or no bumps?


After a long time making those... I'm kind of thinking I like it better without. Which kind of sucks because it took me a long time to make those. :\\

DBB crapped out on me. Sorry, DBL post.

BTW, Duper, I've looked at it a few times and took the rivets off. Looks really nice now. Guess I just went a little overboard. I will add a little rust too it though.

yeah.. no bumps. (sry)

[]V[]essenjah wrote:So, bumps, or no bumps?

Bump would be fine if they were much, much smaller.

To me they are way to big, making it look out of place.

Yeah, that's another problem I've discovered with this. If I shrink them down anymore, you wouldn't even be able to tell that they are there. So, I think it is best to remove them.

You might look for inspiration at photos of modern military aircraft.